THE majestic mountains of Himchal have always attracted admiration but these days they are inviting an outpouring of concern as well. With colonisers plundering the hills, there is a growing sense of outrage against the executive for failing to play its role of a guardian. No wonder the legal corridors are abuzz with loud pleas, calling for judicial intervention to prevent the government from vandalising the hill towns of Shimla, Kasauli, Dalhousie, Chamba, Kullu, Mandi and Dharamsala.

‘‘We do not want to remember the lost wilderness of the hills as the cost of development. Let the hills remain as beautiful as they originally were,’’ says Trisha Sharma, an advocate at the Himachal Pradesh High Court. ‘‘It has become important to save these towns. We have moved the court urging it to declare these towns eco-sensitive zones under the provisions of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 on the lines of Pachmarhi, Matheran, Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani,’’ she says.

She says she moved the high court because neither the union nor the state governments have been able to discharge their statutory duty to protect ecology. Himachal has witnessed rapid unorganised construction activity, tree felling and illegal mining. The state has also failed to properly implement statutory laws like the Town and Country Planning Act, 1977, Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 and some laws relating to mining activity. Tracing the history and importance of these hill stations in the petition filed before the court, Sharma says: ‘‘We cannot pass on a ruined ecology to the posterity.’’

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